Salvatore Tessio

Salvatore "Sal" Tessio (1891-1955) was a caporegime in the Corleone crime family. Along with Peter Clemenza, he was one of Vito Corleone's two original lieutenants, but he was ultimately executed in 1955 for attempting to betray Vito's son Michael Corleone.

Biography
Salvatore Tessio was born in Sicily in 1891, and he was raised in New York City in the United States, where his family immigrated. He became friends with Peter Clemenza and Vito Corleone as a young man, and Tessio and Clemenza would become Corleone's two original lieutenants. In 1934, Tessio personally executed Giuseppe Mariposa, Corleone's rival. During the war with the Tattaglia crime family in 1945-1946, Tessio assigned Aldo Trapani with hit contracts against leading Tattaglias, including Philip Tattaglia's own son Johnny Tattaglia, as well as the men who shot Don Corleone, Donnie Marinelli and Mikey Saleri.

Betrayal
However, Tessio's loyalty to the family did not outlive Vito Corleone. While he thought more of the Don's son Michael Corleone than Clemenza or Tom Hagen did, he did not believe in his ability to lead the family as boss, especially after Corleone allowed for the Barzini crime family to chip away at his territories (secretly doing so in order to lure the Barzinis into a false sense of security). Tessio decided to plot against Michael Corleone, planning to have him whacked at a peace summit with Don Emilio Barzini. However, Michael Corleone had been warned by his late father that any traitor in the family would come to him with an offer of a peace deal, and when Tessio told Michael of the sitdown at Vito's funeral in July 1955, Michael decided that Tessio (not Clemenza) was the traitor.

Death
As Tessio and Hagen were preparing to attend the sitdown, Willie Cicci told him that Michael was coming in a separate car. Hagen then said that he could not come along either, and Cicci and several of Clemenza's men surrounded Tessio. Realizing that Michael had discovered his treachery, Tessio asked Hagen to tell Michael that it was "only business" and he always liked him. Tessio then asked Hagen if he could get him off the hook for "the old times' sake", but Hagen rejected his appeal. Cicci drove Tessio to the Embassy Club in Brooklyn, where Trapani was to execute him. However, upon arriving at the club, Tessio made a last stand with the would-be Barzini assassins, and Trapani managed to kill the bodyguards. Tessio again reiterated that his betrayal was only business, pleading with Trapani to spare his life. However, Trapani executed Tessio, killing the traitor.